Reach Outside Your Comfort Zone (2)

Reach Outside Your Comfort Zone (2)

“How can they hear, unless someone tells them?” Ro 10:14 CEV

John Ortberg says: “(1) Never rule anybody out. Jesus reached out to tax collectors, lepers, sinners, and Gentiles, and they shocked the religious establishment by saying yes…Maybe there’s somebody in your world who’s so far from God you’ve written them off…a relative who ridicules your faith…an acquaintance who’s resisted for years…somebody so steeped in sin you think there’s no hope? Never say no for another person…you don’t know when their heart will soften or how God’s Spirit will work.” (2) Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Ortberg continues: “Blocks from my parents’ home…is the largest Buddhist temple in America. I checked it out and received amazing insight into how intimidating it is to go into a place of worship as a stranger not knowing the customs. When you invite someone to church they’re much more likely to go if you go together. Then have coffee together and talk about what took place.” (3) Be the hands and feet of Jesus. Jewish law prohibited lepers from having contact with non-lepers. But when a leper approached Jesus, He reached out and touched the man who hadn’t been touched in years (See Mk 1:40-45). Was Jesus infected by his leprosy? No, He infected the leper with the gospel, because Jesus was more contagious with God’s power than the leper was with his disease. Be a contagious Christian who infects others with God’s love. Look at your hands. How often do you extend them to someone far from God? His kingdom has been spread the same way for two thousand years: by believers who reach out and bring people to Christ!

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